Device that can extract 1,000 liters of clean water a day from desert air revealed by 2025 Nobel Prize winner — claimed to work in desert air with 20% humidity or lower, delivering off-grid ‘personalized water’
www.tomshardware.com
The system can function in air with 20% humidity or less. But these 1,000 liter a day machines are not small, at around shipping container size.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/59925291

The system can function in air with 20% humidity or less. But these 1,000 liter a day machines are not small, at around shipping container size.

  • Slashme@lemmy.worldEnglish
    8·
    3 hours ago

    This is a bit more serious than the old, frequently-debunked “dehumidifier in the desert” stuff, because it doesn’t depend on cooling the air to get the water out, but using a molecular sponge. If you pump enough air over that, you’ll eventually fill it up, and you can drive the water out by heating it up.

    The guy behind this is a serious organic chemist, and his Nobel prize was actually for pioneering and developing these molecules, so it’s not a case of “Nobel prize winner does daft stuff about a subject he’s not an expert in”, either.

    I’m still reserving judgement on whether this will be economically sensible, but I’m not dismissing it immediately, either.